It would have been O'Sullivan's first match in a ranking event since he was fined a total of £21,000 for walking out of his best-of-17-frames UK Championship quarter-final trailing Stephen Hendry only 4-1 in York last December.

O'Sullivan, 31, previously withdrew from the 2005 China Open in Beijing with an undisclosed medical complaint and was drubbed 5-0 in the first round by James Wattana a year later.

Last season, he reached the semi-finals where eventual winner Graeme Dott beat him 6-2.